TORONTO - The two of them grew up together, went to Hill Academy together, laughed together, played minor hockey together, shared their dreams of first playing in the OHL, then the NHL together.

The last place Cody Payne ever expected to find himself was standing, wearing a Saginaw Spirit jersey over a shirt and tie, in a chapel at the Ward Funeral Home, eulogizing his close friend and schoolmate, Terry Trafford.

They were born a month apart in 1994, two kids living the Canadian dream. Whenever anything happened to one or the other, they called each other. Their stalls were beside each other in the Spirit dressing room. On team buses, they sat opposite each other. They ate their team meals together. Whenever the lights went out and everybody else on the bus fell asleep, they stayed up talking. After curfew, their texts continued.